All about moving to, living in and doing business in Shanghai.

04 November 2005

Narrow Minded People

Narrow minded overly opinionated people really annoy me, especially when they are passing judgement of a people or culture from the safety of the other side of the world. Both Sabrina and I enjoy reading Wang Jian Shuo's Blog primarily because the readers that leave comments are quite funny. But today I got a bit fired up with a Chinese guy who lives in America and his criticism of the people here, so I wrote a bit of dig back at him.

His RantI think that Shanghaise are materialistic. This is definitely true.
They discriminate more based on ECONOMIC CLASS than anything else.

But, the phenomenon isn't just in Shanghai, it's spreading
everywhere in China, where money is more important than morality, where
women throw themselves at foreigners and hating their own kind. That
was the impression i got when I visited China in May of this year.

Me and my wife (both ethnic Chinese) dress as what we would do in
the US, casually, went shoppin gin Shanghai one day. You should see the
type of uppitiness from some of the SERVICE people. We're basically
upper-middle class, own our own home, etc. in the US. I guess we just
don't wear some stupid business suit when we go on vacation, unlike
most mainlanders. Anyway, she heard of some shop that makes good
traditional chinese dress on Nanjing road and went into the Peace Hotel
for directions. The lady in there was soooo rude -- it's funny, because
she's really nice to the white guys and gals there, just not us. She
even tried to talk to us in her BROKEN-ASS English in order to impress
us, and my wife just reply back in English back to her face.

The store isn't much better, until we spend $100 USD on a single
dress. Then you see them FLOCKING toward servicing us - i.e.
materialistic.

It's pretty pathetic that Shanghai will assume that just because
you're a white guy, you're rich, but when an ethnic overseas Chinese
come back, they're automatically assumed to be poor. Here's a hint --
most of teh white guys who teach English in China are POOR ASSES when
they get back to the US -- they're only advantange is the cost of
living adjustments. And, most of them are extremely conservative and
would love to see China fall onto its ass and engage in civil war
(they're also proud supporters of Japan).

Patriotism in China? I see none, i just see a bunch of whores
thinking foreigners are better than their own. It's the sad truth.

However, unlike the previou poster, i'll say that the Chinese space
program is something to be proud of. To be sure, the design of the
original space craft was based on an older Soviet design -- however,
every space expert agreed that the design was heavily modified and
changed and you really cna't say it's just another Russian copy. And
most if not all of the major components are manufactured in China.
Sure, it's late, but only 3 countries in the world have sent people to
the space on their own - and let's not forget that the entire US
shuttle fleet is GROUNDED right now. Unlike the US, i don't think China
will stop its man-space flight program.

As far as the poor goes -- there have always been a wide gap between
rich and poor in China -- the solution isn't economic re-distribution,
but to enforce a fair and equitable treatment of the poor in terms of
LEGAL and LAW and ORDER, something for which China lacks. And if this
isn't addressed soon, all the Shanghaise are gonna suffer big time when
the next revolution occurs. If CHina doesn't address it's lack of law
and order (it's legal system is about who has politcal power or money,
not about justice), there will be another revolution and civil war.

Posted by: Tony on November 4, 2005 07:52 AMMy Response

Tony

I find it quite funny how judgemental you are of people living in
your `old' country when you and your wife obviously couldn't get out of
the country fast enough. You have a very narrow view of the world and
you paint with a very wide brush.

You also call the people of your `old' country whores who think
foreigners are better. Well, you are the one who sold out and moved to
a foreign country - for what purpose? Better opportunities? More money?
Aren't you the whore in this context?

You also suggest that every `white guy' who teaches English in China
wants to see a civil war in China and they support Japan! What are you
talking about?

Finally, you have the audacity to say that the Shanghainese are
materialistic and discriminate about class - then in the next paragraph
you talk about how you are `Upper Middle Class' own your own home in
the US and went to spend $100 on a dress! Can you say `Hypocritical'?

Take a look at your own attitude before critisicing others. Maybe
the lady was rude to you because she was sick of the attitude some
expatriated American Chinese like you have.

I am an expat living in Shanghai, I love the people here. They have
a vibrance and enthusiasm about improving their life that many people
don't have. I can smile and laugh with the people, even when they are
focusing on making money (like trying to sell me something). Making
money is what people all around the world do. Money provides a
lifestyle and better living standards, this is a relatively new
experience here, and people in China are wanting to catch up on what
they have missed out on over the previous 60 years. So please don't be
so judgemental on people that you don't know whilst you sit in your
nice Upper Middle Class house in the US where all the struggle of
trying to establish good living standards by the people was done long
before you got there.

Ps. I know I'm not Chinese, so I may get treated differently,
however my girlfriend is Chinese, and I experience a lot through her.
And no Tony she is not a `whore' that threw herself at me. We met in
Sydney, and I in fact pursued her for some time. We decided to move to
Shanghai for a few years so I could be exposed to the culture. I am not
afraid of living here - why are you?

Posted by: Guran on November 4, 2005 12:19 PM

Judgementalism is one of the very few things that actually get me fired up - so don't worry, I don't go around sticking it up people too often!

Comments

brad you poor silly bugger, are you still wearing thoes rose tinted glass's now? 11 months after you wrote the above? by now you will have relised that 90% of mainland chinese are the most stupidist race on this earth, they think we the western people are complete idiots, all the chinese learn and know about the west is what they learn from watching DVD's, and thoes DVD's are mainly rambo type of crap yes 80% of chinese are good hearted people with 20% being pure arseholes, mainland chinese do not have the simplist of common sense, if you think iam pissin your pocket then just try to get out of a lift some time mate, the idiots wanting to get into the lift are clambering over the top of the people trying to get out of the lift, try walking into a shop or resturant sometime, you have to kick the push bikes and motor bikes out of the door way before you can get in the door of the shop or resturant etc etc, you can never get a straight answer or the truth from a chinese, complete liars,worst than any loud mouth yank / canadian i have ever met, try and get a chinese tradesman to do a simple job for you, after six attempts showing the fool how you want the job done you just walk away before you pull the rest of your hair out, when the job is finally finished it is still not done proply anothur cock up,there is an easy way and a hard way to do a job and every time the chinese will try and do it the hard way,there stupidity in trying to save face is laughable, pluss chinese men treat there women like trash, majority of mainland men have a wife plus a woman on the side, no wonder there women like western men, plus ask any chinese women they will tell you that chinese men are not well hung at all more like your little finger, now western men are much more endowled and can keep there chinese wife very happy this last point you did not mention to the american chinaman Tony in the above, chinese should never be allowed behind a wheel of a vehicle, they just can not operate a vehicle safely, i can now see you frothing at the mouth with anger at my comments but Brad my fine australian friend iam married to a chinbese woman and the shit that i have put up with these last 3 years is unbelievable i have never had a woman put me thrue so much stress as my chinese wife and mate iam not a spring chicken and have lived in over 50 country's working around the world since the day i left home at the age of 14 yrs, yes there are some very good and smart chinese but these people have immergrated allredy to other country's and left the idiots behind in mainland china,myself i have lived in china for three years take care old son and good luck to you cheers cecil

Cecil: Those are idiotic statements you made about Chinese people. But then again, you being Australian, are a decendent of criminals and vagabonds from England, so you have not surprised anyone. And besides, you married a Chinese, so you must really be dumb if you feel that way about the Chinese.